Page 3 of Fierce-Baker

There were always security walking around, the store to the left of her had employees in it, the bar to the right also. The walls were glass letting everyone see everyone else.

“Just a few months,” she said. “It’s a summer job. I’m a teacher.”

“Me too,” the woman said, pushing her way in front of the guy she came with. She wanted to tell the woman to run in the other direction if he was flirting with someone in front of her face. Just imagine what was going on behind her back.

But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t nudge her past drama onto anyone else.

Least of all paying customers.

“What grade do you teach?”

“Fourth,” the woman said.

“Fifth for me. It’s such an... interesting age.”

“Oh, tell me about it.” She shared a few funny stories of her students, then moved the customers through for the next group.

The next few hours went that way for her until an employee from the store came out. “Go on your break, Tasha,” Melanie said. “I’ve got you for thirty minutes.”

“Thanks.” She lifted the rope and walked toward the locker room where everyone could keep their belongings. There was a large fridge for their lunches along with jugs of water and a massive coffee station, free for everyone.

She filled her water bottle she kept at the stand with her, then unlocked her locker and pulled out her lunch and placed her butt in a chair at the table.

There were a few others in the room. People she didn’t know that well but saw them around. Men who worked in the brewery.

“Hey, Tasha.”

She turned when her name was called.

There were some snickers with that move, but it wasn’t as if she could get up and leave. Not from the woman who still owned a stake in all the Fierce holdings.

The matriarch of the family.

“Hello, Jolene. I thought for sure you’d be home relaxing after this past weekend.”

Jolene, who had more pep in her step than half her students, speed-walked closer, pulled out a chair and planted her ass.

“I still have as much energy as I did thirty-five years ago,” Jolene said. “When I was chasing toddlers around the house. You know, five at once. You’ve just got one.”

Tasha smiled. “I do. Micah. He’s a handful. And now that he’s walking.” She shivered. “I can’t imagine what he’d be like if I had more than one, let alone five.”

“You’d be able to handle it just fine. How is your son? Got some pictures for me?”

“I always have pictures to share.”

She pulled her phone out of her back pocket where she kept it even while working. Not that she’d text or check emails, let alone social media, while on the clock. But she wanted to be reached if there was a problem with her son.

She unlocked her phone and went to the photos, then scrolled through them with Jolene leaning close and laughing over each one.

“He looks like a handful.”

She finished chewing the bite of her sandwich while Jolene was glancing at the carousel of pictures. “If he weren’t such a sweet-natured child with it, I’d be pulling my hair out. But he’s all smiles and laughs, even when he’s doing something he shouldn’t be.”

“Oh boy,” Jolene said, shaking her head. “One of those? That was Cade. But I learned early on that he was going to be my little joker too.”

“I hope Micah doesn’t turn into that.”

“Was Micah’s father like that as a child?”